Shiprocket looks to land $200m📦

Flipkart strengthens kirana delivery, Notion acquires Automate.io and more.

Rise & Shine ☀

Sep 9, 2021

Hi 👋🏻,

Rise n Shine comes in your inbox every day with curated tech and business news snippets to kick-start your day.

Let’s get started:

Shiprocket eyes $200 million from Temasek and others📦

Shiprocket, a logistics operator, is in talks with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek to lead a new, $200-million funding round. The round, which is being finalized, is expected to value the company at more than $800 million.

Founders- Akshay Ghulati, Vishesh Khurana, Saahil Goel & Gautam Kapoor

Shiprocket collects goods from direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, micro-entrepreneurs and local brands, and sends them to logistics players such as Delhivery and Ecom Express. It also helps retailers integrate their websites on platforms such as Shopify.

Shiprocket claims it has an annual revenue run rate of $80-90 million and 1.3 to 1.4 lakh yearly active merchants on its platform.

Flipkart strengthens kirana delivery ahead of Big Billion Days🛒

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Wednesday said it has bolstered its delivery network with more than one lakh 'Kirana' (neighborhood stores) partners from across the country ahead of its Big Billion days sale and upcoming festive season.

Flipkart had started the program in 2019 to onboard local stores and shops as delivery partners and has since then, invested consistently to get these businesses ready for making deliveries.

Last year, more than 10 million deliveries were made by these specially trained Kirana partners across the country during the festive season.
The Kirana delivery program accounts for nearly one-third of Flipkart's deliveries made in a month.

Edtech startup Leap has raised $55 million (Rs 400 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Owl Ventures.

WeRize, a financial services platform, has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round.
Vahdam India, a wellness brand, has raised Rs 174 crore in a Series D funding round led by IIFL AMC’s private equity fund.

Notion acquires Hyderabad-based Automate.io🤖

Work collaboration company Notion has acquired integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) firm Automate.io in a cash and stock deal.

The San Francisco-based company will absorb Hyderabad-based Automate.io’s entire 40-member team, which will continue to operate in the city.

Six-year-old Automate.io was founded by Ashok Gudibandla, who will lead Notion’s India team in his new role.

Notion, which was valued at more than $2 billion last year, has witnessed 5x growth in weekly active users in the last 18 months globally, and 8x in India.